Are you ready to get going with all new tangles for 2012?
In consideration for the new tanglers joining us in recent weeks, I thought we’d start off the new year with an easy-to-do filler pattern based on a grid.
Diagonals is a tangle pattern from one of CZT® Suzanne McNeill’s early books, Zentangle 2. Each of Suzanne’s books take Zentangle® into the world of crafts and Zentangle-inspired creations. Zentangle 2 primarily focuses on ATCs, scrapbooks, sketchbooks and journals and offers 40 patterns to learn.
Suzanne illustrates the steps for drawing Diagonals here. A row or two of this simple tangle also makes a very striking border around a section. UPDATE: Early in the Summer of 2014 Suzanne McNeill’s blog was removed and all the posts and images were lost, so this link no longer works.
Her site is being reconstructed as much as possible and until it’s available again, many of her patterns like Diagonals can quite easily be figured out. Have fun challenging your Zentangle® deconstructing abilities!
Experiencing the meditative, relaxing benefits of Zentangle® is all about singular focus and slow, deliberate strokes drawing non-representational patterns. If you find yourself occasionally losing that degree of concentration when completing fills in tangles like Diagonals, you might find the tip demonstrated on Arrowheads helpful.
You can find more grid-based tangles to learn by clicking on the tag grid in the left sidebar under the heading PATTERNS BY TYPE.
And check out the tag suzannem for more of Suzanne’s patterns on TanglePatterns.com.
For detailed Book Reviews of all the available books about Zentangle®, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the menu bar at the top of the page.
Related Links:
- Useful information about copyright – very helpful information for new tanglers regarding fair use and selling your Zentangle-inspired creations – with thanks to new tangler Julie H. for asking about this today!
Related Links
- Looking for tangles by Artist or Type? For details visit the ABOUT > HOW TO FIND TANGLES BY ARTIST OR TYPE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site.
- What is a Zentangle? — if you are new to the Zentangle Method, start here for the fundamentals.
- Zentangle terminology — a glossary of terms used in this art form.
- How to use the site — an excellent free video tutorial showing how to use the site as well as pointing out lots of useful features you might have missed.
- Linda's List of Zentangle-Original Patterns — here is the complete list of original tangles (aka "official tangles") created and introduced by founders Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas, including those not published online. If you are new to the Zentangle Method I highly recommend learning a few of the published Zentangle classics first.
- "A Zentangle has no up or down and is not a picture of something, so you have no worries about whether you can draw a hand, or a duck. You always succeed in creating a Zentangle." Patterns that are drawings of a recognizable naturalistic or actual object, figure, or scene, are not tangles. A pattern is not always a tangle — here's what makes a tangle. TIP: tangles never start with pencil planning.
- Un motif n’est pas toujours un tangle — Qu’est-ce qu’un tangle ?
- Un diseño no es siempre un tangle — ¿Qué es un tangle?
- How to submit your pattern deconstruction to TanglePatterns
- For lots of great FREE tutorials on TanglePatterns, click on the TUTORIALS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page.
- Strings! Have we got STRINGS! Click on the STRINGS link in the pink alphabetic menu bar below the tangle images at the top of any page for 250 different (free) Zentangle-starters. More than enough for any lifetime!
- Never miss a tangle! FREE eMAIL NEWSLETTER - visit the SUBSCRIBE page on the top menu bar of any page on the site and sign up to get notices delivered free to your inbox.
- If you have questions about the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab on the top menu bar of any page on the site for COMPLETE details!
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Enhance your Zentangle experience while supporting TanglePatterns: |
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NEW!! TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE, 2025 Edition |
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The 14th Edition of the TanglePatterns.com TANGLE GUIDE is an instant-download 117-page interactive digital eBook/PDF containing over 2,000 tangles on the site from May 2010 through December 31, 2024. It's a great resource and a must-have digital tool for using the site. Visit the STORE > E-BOOKS page and help keep TanglePatterns.com going by getting your copy now! |
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This is the only Zentangle book you'll ever need: the fabulous Zentangle PRIMER Vol 1. It's your CZT-in-a-book by the founders of Zentangle®. Visit the STORE tab on the top menu bar or click on the image. For more about the content and to read the rave reviews, visit the BOOK REVIEWS tab. |
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| "Absolutely the best Zentangle Book yet! As an accomplished artist I used to think I did not need instruction on this art form. How wrong I was! My tangling improved by leaps and bounds after reading this book. If you think you have Zentangle down then you need this book more than ever!" ~ Kris H | |
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January 2, 2012 | 
More like this: 
The “Diagonals” tangle is cute and very common. I thought I saw this tangle pattern before. I do have every Zentangle Book written by Suzanne McNeal. I just purchased Zentangle 6 and Zen-sational stitches for Quilting.
I have become obssessed with Tangles. I have been doing them now for about 3 months. I love doing them. I have a question. Is it alright to start the tangles in pencil? And there’s nothing wrong with not doing all the tangles, right? Oops that’s 2 questions. LOL
Hi Margie, welcome to our “magnificent obsession”! You can do whatever makes you comfortable and if you want to start out with pencil, go for it. I always practice tangles several times on scrap paper before I do them on the tiles because it usually takes me time to “get it”. And you can do as many, or as few, tangles as you want to. I do recommend starting with the official tangles first – they are the best and have infinite combinations and variations. They give you a good sense of what a real tangle is all about. And they’re so classy.